1. Field of the Invention
This invention is about an apparatus and method to pile up the by-products of semiconductors and flat panel display. It is also in regards to the detailed treatment of the substrate of the process chamber and vacuum installation; the use and application of the substrate treatment process. In any case, if the semiconductor is a substrate, it would use the production process and application as that of the installation of the semiconductor equipment; on the other hand, if the Flat Panel Display is a substrate, then it would undergo the production process and application as that of the process chamber and vacuum installation. In the production process of the Flat Panel Display and especially the element of semiconductor, it undergoes the CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) process and Dry Etch process; in this process, the chemical reactive gas reacts in the process chamber creating a thin film, forming by-products such as gas released through the vacuum pumps, which then effectively works in the pile up of the powder in the manufacturing process of the FPD (Flat Panel Display).
2. Description of the Related Art
First of all, the said invention has been applied for License No. 2005-6361 (Title: Pile up Process of By0products of Semiconductor Equipments) done to provide a detailed explanation of the process.
In the production process of semiconductors or Flat Panel Displays, the use of poisonous gas of the thin film deposition process especially or the Dry Etch process is mostly used. One of the processes in thin film deposition is the CVD process which occurs under high temperature, low pressure at many times processed in the plasma environment. Etch processing makes use of hydro etching which is similar to that of isotropic etching or many times uses an isotropic etching processed in the ionic state or plasma environment then processed to dry etching processes (S. M. Irving, Kodak Photoresist Sem. Proc., Vol. 2, May (1968)). CVD process is a process forming a thin film; a thin film insulation film is made through this process with a conductor within the device currently under the production process of VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration), it is also used widely as electrical insulator in between metal wiring and it is used to isolate the environment within the perimeter. In addition, a thin metal film made out of this process is also used in the electrical wiring of semiconductor devices. The most widely used insulation film matter are thin films made of silicon oxide film, silicon nitrate film, metal oxide film and high dielectric medium; for the metal substances there thin films such as poly-silicon film, metal silicide, aluminum or tungsten chromium and many more. There are many processes in formation of these thin films such as APCVD (Atmosphere Pressure CVD), LPCVD (Low-Pressure CVD), PECVD (Plasma-Enhanced CVD), MOCVD (Metal Organic CVD), ALD (Atomic Layer Deposition), TPD (Ticl based Pulsed Deposition) and many other processes.
The production process of semiconductors may use dry etching or the process of using of several toxic chemical gases. Within the reaction chambers, plasma etching generates volatile substances by chemical reactions with the assistance of the radicals in its plasmic state. Another plasma etching is the process of ion assist employing neutral radicals. The application number of US 2002/0168467 shows in general the structure progress of dry etching process. However, in this data, it does not fully clarify the handling of reaction of the remaining gases.
The manufacturing process of FPD (Flat Panel Display) is similar to that of the silicon semiconductor. Therefore, processes such as of thin film deposition, photolithograph, etching and many more constitutes the process; and to verify the results and condition of each of the processes, cleaning is also included to sustain the condition and cleanliness. To maintain the metal film and the transparency of the electrode, the sputtering method is used. As of the silicon and insulator films, PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) method is usually applied.
In the production process of semiconductors the wafer feature is removed or the wafer feature of the thin film is opted to be etched within the process chamber with the use of toxic gases such as Silane, Boron Chloride, and Hydrogen in high temperature. While the above process is in progress, various gases that are volatile, corrosive and other gases poisonous substances are released in large amounts into the exterior of the chamber.
The above-mentioned harmful gases released come in contact with the atmosphere, solidify and then transform to its powder form. This powder then adheres to the pumping line and increases the pressure of the ventilation or it may cause problems of contamination of the wafer due to the countercurrent of the exhaust gas within the process chamber.
To solve the above-mentioned problems as shown in the case of U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,420 (Wei Hua Tong et al.), incorporated herein by reference, a powder trap is fully equipped to condense the exhausted gas discharged from the aforementioned process chamber in between the vacuum pump and the process chamber.
However, such provision (powder trap) has caused problems so far. Namely, until the by-product produced in the exterior of the process chamber from the reaction is transformed into powder form which then accumulates in the trap, an ample amount of time is consumed. Thus the standby time until the by-product formed from the reaction in the process chamber will be eliminated will take longer, lowering the operation time of the equipment.
Moreover, with regards to the limited space in the trap, the accumulating powder will have to be eliminated and cleaned frequently; due to these factors, the standby time of the process chamber is then prolonged causing problems of lengthening of the total process time.